UNSUSPECTING.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XLV, Issue 6219, 9 December 1914, Page 4

UNSUSPECTING.

A SMART GERMAN PRACTICE. HOW ENGLISH TRADERS WERIi CAUGHT. A BUSINESS MAN'S IMPRESSIONS. Mr A. E. Mabin, a former president of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce, and of the New Zealand Woolbrokers' Association, returned from a prolonged visit to England on Friday last. While there he was almost daily iii the city on business, and there learned in the very heart of the Empire and the heart of the world of finance something of the smart practice followed by German banks and trading houses long before England had suspected that she might be called upon to light Germany.

In an interview given to the Evening Post on Saturday Mr Mabin said: "German credit is now gdne beyond recall. It will take many, many years, if ever at all, no mattor what the issue of the war may be, for Germans to re-estab-lish themselves in the esteem of business men. For some time before the win', long before Englishmen thought conflict was probable, Gorman banks were preparing for it, unloading paper ami holding on firmly to gold. Practically no one in the city had the slight est suspicion of what was afoot. Bradford was terribly hit by the war. All it held was £3,750,000 of German paper. The Germans had the wool, and they cannot pay and will not pay. Whatever the British Government and British financial houses knew or did no ' know, tlic German banks and large trading houses clearly knew that war was pending. it was only when the crash came that London knew what had been going on. BUSINESSES RUINED.

"Hundreds of large houses in London to-day do not know where they stand. Goods are locked up in ships held by the Germans, or on German ships in German waters, or in neutral ports. You will find that never again will British traders trust their goods to German ships; never again will Germany bo able to obtain the eredit she did before the war; never again will Germans be employed in English houses. Why, they had mastered all the details of English banks' affairs—knew and forwarded to the German authorities where every strong-room was and what it contained. England was infested with German spies. But it was not realised how serious this menace had become until the war was started. It is now well understood in England that no German, naturalised or otherwise, is safe, and they are all being rounded up and kept uuiioi' surveillance in the United Kingdom with a thoroughness that we in New Zealand cannot yet appreciate.

NO DOUBT ABOUT THE BESULT. "The feeling in England with regard to this war is aptly described by Mr Winston Churchill. The bulldog'B nose is turned back in order that he can breathe while he holds on all the time. "There is not the slightest doubt in all England, Ireland and Scotland about the result of this war. Germany must and will be crushed. There is no excitement, no Jingoism, no waving of flags. I never saw a people so quietly determined as the British are. You would not imagine \hat it could be so, considering the tremendous problem that has to be solved arid will be solved. It lias taken a long time for Englishmen to get their feeling up, but it will take a very long time for them to live it down.

HOPELESS FINANCIAL POSITION.

"It is felt in 'this city that Germany's financial and trading condition is now hopeless. No one living will ever trust a German again. I have found the English a fairly tolerant people before the war, but their hatred of Germany and Germans to-day is bitter beyond description, and it is doubtful if ever in our time it will be effaced. The treachery—and, above all, the vile mutilations of the Belgians, men, women and children—has made the German name an abomination. At first when we heard of these horrors some reasonably thought they were exaggerated. But it was all only too true. By every boat people are arriving in England with hands cut Off, eyes gouged out, children mutilated, and women battered about by German soldiers. These are but the snrvivors of the butcheries. The number of those who were slaughtered in cold blood will never be known."

Speaking of the wool trade, Mr Mabin told the Post reporter that, apart from the-vast quantities of wool bought by Germans: from Bradford and nfever paid for, the' Germans took- the wool-Stored in Franee' ancl Belgium, and' no doubt'Bi^eduptie l arillitk«e.lt

was impossible to say how long prosent prices for New Zealand wools would be maintained, but it was clear that it would be a Jong time before the Contieut, as it was understood in relation to wool, would be a buyer. BEFORE THE WAB.

"Before the war the British Government was tottering to its fall. Germany know that quite well. It hoped that with Mr Asquith and Mr Lloyd George a peace-at-any-price policy would prevail, It forgot Sir Edward Grey; it took no acceunt of Mr Winston Churchill. The latter at that time was generally unpopular. He is immensely popular to-day, for in the city it haß been learned that he mobilised the Navy himself—on his own responsibility, and against the wishes of some of his colleagues, Some whisper had come from Italy suggesting that trouble was pending. The British Government thought it was German bluff, would only be German bluff; and they thought it was bluff to the last. But the Germans themselves were surprised at the turn events took. So the war will go on, whether it be long or brief, until Germany is humbled and broken. That is the feeling in the City of London to-day, I have no doubt, m it vu when T left."